A dome camera, which is used, for example, for surveying a facility, is installed on a ceiling or the like. Conventionally, as a dome camera of this type, a dome camera having a base attached to the ceiling or the like, a camera attached to the base, and a transparent dome cover for covering the camera has been known. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-356668 (pp. 6-9, FIG. 1) discloses a dome camera of this type. Such a conventional dome camera uses a semispherical dome cover because such a dome cover can be molded easily and be manufactured at a low cost.
For the conventional dome camera, the dome cover is fixed to the base, so that the direction of the dome cover cannot be adjusted. Therefore, even when a camera having a pan and tilt mechanism rotatable in all directions of 360 degrees is used, the visual range (the range in which pictures can be taken) of the camera is limited to a semispherical range with the vertex direction of dome cover being the center (a semispherical range from the vertex direction to the equator direction of dome cover).
For the dome camera, the direction of the visual range (the center direction of visual range) of camera must be adjusted in some cases according to conditions such as an installation place. For example, in the case of a dome camera installed on a ceiling, the usual visual range of camera is a predetermined range from the downward vertical direction (the vertex direction of dome cover) to the horizontal direction (the equator direction of dome cover). In some cases, a range from the horizontal direction up to an upward angle is desired to be included in the visual range depending on the installation place of dome camera. However, for the conventional dome camera, the direction of the visual range has been unable to be adjusted.